


The Lid

by AnathemaAuthoress



Series: Power Outage Prompts [1]
Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: Drabble, Fluff, Gen, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28137870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnathemaAuthoress/pseuds/AnathemaAuthoress
Summary: Prompt: Reddie, trashcan with a hole in the lidEddie takes out the trash
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Series: Power Outage Prompts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2061396
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	The Lid

**Author's Note:**

> Just part of a group of little prompt exercises I did with my hubby while our power was out!

Eddie hated the sound of his own harsh breathing as he lugged the industrial grade trashbags to the curb. Even the stretchy, overpriced plastic looked ready to burst for how stuffed the bags were with discarded frozen dinner boxes and empty cans of mountain dew.

Eddie had warned Richie about the danger of too much sugar intake and the poor optics of living like college students well into their forties.

It seemed, however, that Richie was not inclined to heed his boyfriend on either point. He also seemed to hate breaking down boxes, no matter how many times he was lectured. 

Which all contributed to how Eddie had wound up carrying out bags nearly twice his size. The day before pickup to boot, so he was forced to carry them all the way down the drive and walk rather than simply being able to toss them out the front door.

At long last, he reached the trash bins, but sadly was met with a fresh obstacle. 

It wasn’t that the cans were too small—they were, but he was used to that—rather it was that one of the lids had blown off and come to rest beside the cans. It rested half tilted on the sidewalk edge with a precise and gaping hole in the top, just off the handle.

The men did not have the plastic standard-issue cans of the suburbs that Eddie was accustomed to, nor the public dumpsters available in big cities and for apartments. Instead they were troubled with the old-fashioned aluminum cans still used in run-down neighborhoods like the one they were laying low in while they waited for Eddie’s ex-wife to get bored of stalking him.

“It’ll be good for inspiration. Since I’m thinking of writing that book,” Richie had pitched a little less than a month prior. Foolishly, Eddie had agreed. While there were many things he had come to hate about this choice, the metal trash bins were easily top five.

Reluctantly, he set the bags on the curb with a huff and picked up the lid and inspected it.

The hollow was wide and almost evenly trimmed, as if it had been measured, but the edges were serrated like the chunk had been taken by a tiny saw. Or teeth.

Eddie felt a nervous flutter in his chest, but quieted it. It could’ve just been neighbor kids, plenty of shits in the area with a stupid sense of humor. He could see how they would take enjoyment from making the roadside stink. Even with the punctured lid back in place, the scent would waft whenever anyone passed.

Though the street already reeked of skunk weed and chewing tobacco splattered crosswalks, for Eddie it was the principle of the thing. So he marched up to the house, leaned his head in, and shouted, “Come here! Now!”

Richie shouted something back, but it was indistinguishable and a moment later he was outside and following Eddie to the cans anyway.

“What? Why are you shouting?“ Richie looked with confusion between their trash—still on the curb—and Eddie, hauty and holding up the trash lid with an expression of indignance.

“Oh, shit, Eds. I can explain! It was a one-time affair. She’s just so sleek and metallic, can you blame me?“

Annoyance melted into confusion that rose to anger as Eddie processed the joke. “Fuck you, you wish your dick was this big! Richie this is serious! What happened?”

“How should I know?“

“You didn’t do it?“

“Fuck our trashcan?“

“For fuck’s sake!“

“Eds, calm down. It’s just one of those weird things that happens in city life. Probably kids, a prank.”

Even though that had been Eddie’s suspicion too, he didn’t find it satisfying. “We never would have—“ Eddie’s words died at Richie’s pointed look. “Well,  _ you _ would have.“

Richie chuckled, wrapped one arm around Eddie’s shoulders and hugged him. “It’s just one of those things,“ he repeated. “Learning to let go is a virtue.“

Eddie nodded slowly. With Richie‘s help he put the overstuffed bags in the cans and covered them, holey lid and all. To him the lid would always be a mystery, but to the mother raccoon that had given birth under their crawlspace it would be a spectacular gift of sparkly wonder for her children—along with all the other shiny things she would one day come to take.


End file.
